Letters to the Editor

Ironic praise Thank goodness for Curt Guyette’s interview with Russ Bellant (“You don’t know Dick,” Metro Times, Oct. 4). If not for the article, I never would have known the shocking news that Republican Dick DeVos and his family support conservative causes and free-market think tanks. How stunning to read that DeVos promoted school choice to reform our broken education system and supports low taxes. What a surprise that DeVos contributes to the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center, two well-respected think tanks that promote the benefits of free markets over centralized government control. Who would have ever thought that a conservative in this day of “moderates” would encourage such things? —Steve Sutton, Farmington Hills

Thinking about Dick Editor: If elected governor, I’m afraid Dick DeVos would be either a) the new Herbert Hoover, ruining ordinary people with criminal neglect or b) the new John Engler, playing smash and grab with state institutions. Now that I think about it, he’d probably do both. —Jim Lang, Royal Oak

Dump Debbie, already! It’s obvious that Jack Lessenberry doesn’t bother to read other columns in the Metro Times. In his recent column, “What do we do now?” (Metro Times, Oct. 4), Lessenberry whines about U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s vote to give Bush the power to torture detainees. Jack, in the understatement of the year, says Stabenow’s vote makes him “deeply uneasy.” And he asks, “What do we do now?”

Well Dan Savage, adviser to the lovelorn, has the answer. Readers of Savage’s column know he regularly advises readers to “dump the motherfucker already” (DTMFA) when their partners treat them like shit. And he recently advised one reader, whose partner was having sex with a German shepherd, to “dump the dog-fucker already.”

Stabenow, our Democratic senator, has been sleeping with Republican dogs for quite a while. She not only voted yes on the torture bill, she voted yes on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, voted yes to criminalize flag burners and voted yes on a bankruptcy bill written by credit card companies.

“What to do?” Dump her! Stop voting for her! There are other candidates, like David Sole, an anti-war activist who has fought against American imperialism for decades. Sole, Green Party candidate for senator, is opposed to all those Stabenow-Bush wars and supports bringing the troops home now.

But I know Lesenberry won’t listen to Savage’s advice. He’s going to stay in the abusive relationship with the Democratic Party, regardless of who they sleep with because he’s stuck in a time warp. He thinks Kennedy is president and the Democrats still care about working people. Wake up and smell the coffee, Jack. Democrats get paid by the same johns who contribute to Republicans and they vote the same way too. —George Corsetti, Detroit

In a similar vein “Our own U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow was one of those, by the way, which ought to make us deeply uneasy.”

“… deeply uneasy.” What?!

How about physically ill? The country opposes this president. The average person doesn’t want anything to do with torture. A man who was actually tortured (John McCain) has turned into such a whore that he approved this. And then, “our own” (whose again?) junior senator pulls this crap way too late for the anemic Democratic Party to do anything about it.

And you are made deeply uneasy? If the very people elected to stop this horseshit won’t stop it, we are way beyond “uneasy.” We are “deeply fucked,” coming and going. Who is going to stop this if not the opposition party? Who represents the opposing (e.g. majority) view? —Curt Waugh, Ypsilanti

Parents must be involved I read with interest the article, “Proof you can’t count on DPS”, (Metro Times, Oct. 4, 2006). I’m an educator in the Detroit Public Schools and I think it’s absolutely reprehensible that there were 25,000 students missing, with most probably sitting at home, from Detroit public schools before the fourth Wednesday “count day” determining student funding for the district. Parents are going to have to start being more responsible as relates to their children’s education, and that starts with getting their children to school every day and not just on “count day.” It’s a sad state of affairs when parents knowingly let their child stay home, in this case, until there’s been a full-court press put on, with tens of thousands of dollars spent, when the district is supposedly broke, on radio advertisement, computers, bikes, giving away gift certificates and holding ice cream socials in an attempt to bring students back to DPS. Education is the most important investment we parents will ever make in our children’s life. If more parents don’t start taking a more active interest in their children’s education, this madness will continue. —Thomas A. Wilson Jr., Detroit

Will work for free Keith Owens’ Oct. 4 column quoting retired suburban deputy schools superintendent and Finney High School administrator John Telford (Proof you can’t count on DPS”) was on point. DPS is looking for leadership in all the wrong places. Dr. Telford, for example, who officiates with me on the Team for Justice board in Detroit, had offered on his radio show (WCHB 1200-AM, Sundays at 1:30 p.m.) and in his Michigan Chronicle newspaper columns to serve as DPS superintendent without pay for one year. If after that year the board and community like what they see, he says he will work a minimum of two additional years on salary to continue the cleanup that should have happened long ago. This would seem to be a pretty good offer for a district deep in debt.

Telford, who was a world-class quarter-miler at WSU, is a direct and indomitable activist who loves a challenge, and the task of fixing Detroit’s foundering schools is a challenge indeed. —Robert Plumpe, Detroit

Errata: In “Got Dem hopes” (Metro Times, Oct. 11), we incorrectly identified the Democratic hopeful for District 8. He is Jim Marcinkowski. And in this week’s issue (Oct. 18) Metro Times staff selected Frank Lloyd Wright’s Cooperative Homesteads, a subdivision in Madison Heights, as Best Architectural Guessing Game. Unfortunately, after Best Of Detroit pages left for the printer, we learned that Wright’s Cooperative Homesteads neighborhood was torn down in the summer of 2001 to make room for a Meijer Thrifty Acres and the subdivision Pine Ridge Estates.

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